Materia Medica of the Superior Physician

Shangyi Bencao (Materia Medica of the Superior Physician) in four juan was compiled by Zhao Nanxing of the Ming dynasty, a renowned official of the late Ming whose biography appears in the History of Ming. While dismissed from office and living at home, he suffered a long illness that did not respond to medication; he therefore treated himself with dietary remedies based on Li Shizhen's Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica) and eventually recovered fully. Realizing the importance of diet for health, he compiled this book. The author held that excessive use of drugs harms the spleen and stomach, ultimately making medication impossible; moderating diet accords with the principle that "the superior physician treats illness before it arises" and with the saying that "leaving an illness untreated often amounts to mid-level medical care," hence the title Shangyi Bencao. Except for a very few entries, the book is excerpted from Li Shizhen's Bencao Gangmu. It is divided into ten categories—water, grains, fermented preparations, fruits, vegetables, poultry, beasts, fish, shellfish, and insects—and records more than 470 food items from the materia medica, briefly describing each item's aliases, varieties, appearance, nature and flavor, indications, and suitability or contraindications, often with single-ingredient dietary remedies attached. Though it offers little original insight, it distills the essential properties and uses of foods and remains useful to today's health-minded readers. This edition adopts the "Complete Works of Lord Zhongyi Zhao" held by the Harvard-Yenching Library as its base text and collates it against the Jinling and Jiangxi editions of the Bencao Gangmu and the Huimingxuan edition of the Chongxiu Zhenghe Jingshi Zhenglei Beiyong Bencao, for the reference of readers at or above the undergraduate level in Chinese medicine and enthusiasts of Chinese medicine.